Between summer 2017 and summer 2018, Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan – Executive Director of the School of Public & International Affairs – authored or co-authored 35 policy-oriented op-eds in major news outlets, including 1 comprehensive study of the 2018 Iran uprising that was cited in official testimony before the Canadian Parliament. The articles frequently raised themes picked up by prominent American and European officials in public remarks and prior to important votes. In some instances, the articles were syndicated and translated into French and/or Farsi by third parties before being republished. Recent articles include:

*The National Interest is the leading journal associated with the realist school of foreign policy and is published by the Center for the National Interest, chaired by Henry Kissinger. The article, which was a leading article at the magazine during the 2018 Iran uprising, was coauthored with University of Michigan Professor Emeritus Raymond Tanter, a member of the National Security Council senior staff in the Regan White House.

In June 2018, Dr. Sheehan traveled to Paris as part of a research delegation examining the Iranian opposition as protests swept over Iran. Sheehan’s policy-oriented writing, scholarship, and media appearances – as well as analyses provided to policymakers in the U.S. Congress – have examined matters related to regime change in Iran. On June 29, 2018, Sheehan participated in radio, print, and television media in Paris, including interviews with talk show host Mike Siegel (syndicated by Genesis Communications Network), Al Arabiya, Iran National Television, and the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Dr. Sheehan also spoke, on background, for reporting carried out by POLITICO.

The Paris conference, carried live in the U.S. by Fox News and The Washington Times, was also broadcast inside Iran by Voice of America and featured prominently in many Arab newspapers. Dignitaries in attendance included former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich; former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge; former U.S. Attorney General Judge Michael Mukasey; former National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush, Frances Townsend, and many others.

Breaking news following the event indicated that the rally had been targeted by agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) in a terror plot thwarted by authorities in Belgium, France, Germany, and Austria who worked together to foil the bombing. Five individuals, including an Iranian diplomat, who was reportedly working as an MOIS Station Chief in Vienna, were arrested after being trapped with explosives and a detonator. The plot was immediately reported on by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and NBC and addressed by senior U.S. State Department officials.

In summer 2018, Dr. Sheehan was also invited to join select, senior former U.S. officials – including Speaker Newt Gingrich, FBI Director Louis Freeh, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey – as a signatory to an open letter published in the The New York Times in support of Iranian protesters promoting democracy in Iran. Sheehan was also invited to join a group of select, distinguished U.S. officials as a signatory to an official letter sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the foiled terror plot launched by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) that targeted the rally for democracy in Iran held in Paris.

On November 30, 2016, Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan – Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs – challenged claims made by former U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the Department of State, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, and Washington Post columnist, Mr. Josh Rogin, against senior officials under consideration for posts in the Trump White House:

I am the author of three empirical, peer-reviewed journal articles that examine matters involving the exiled Iranian resistance group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). I also penned the foreword to an independent 2013 study undertaken by Ambassador Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr. that addressed the misinformation campaign directed at Western government policies toward the Iranian opposition group. Bloomfield, a former defense and foreign policy official who served three presidents over five administrations in the Pentagon, White House, and State Department, produced the scholarly history of the MEK to challenge conventional wisdom within the Department of State and to prompt fresh policy thinking…

After appearing at Townhall, the commentary was republished as the featured post at the Foreign Policy Association and has been shared thousands of times in less than a week.

Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan is the Director of the graduate programs in Negotiations & Conflict Management and Global Affairs & Human Securityin the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore.